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Cleveland's high schools show off for students, who can pick and choose the best fit

Cleveland school district gives students a look at high school choices

Dumaine Williams talks about the new school that Bard College is bringing to the West Side at the Cleveland Metropolitan School District's annual school choice fair held at the Wolstein Center on Thursday. Secondary schools and colleges set up tables ringing the hallway with information for Cleveland students and parents shopping for their next school choice.
(Thomas Ondrey/The Plain Dealer)

Cleveland is moving more and more each year from having a traditional school district, where students attend the high school in their neighborhood, to a “portfolio” model. That lets students pick from several specialty, or theme, high schools along with the neighborhood ones.

So each year the district has a “choice fair,” an event where each school has representatives on hand to describe their program and answer questions from prospective students. Several colleges also attend, for students to learn future opportunities and expectations.

In the passageways around the rim of the Wolstein Center, tables for schools such as the three district New Tech high schools, the Washington Park Environmental Studies Academy and the Max Hayes vocational high school were mixed with tables for schools like Ohio State University, Cuyahoga Community College and Hiram College.

“I grew up with a traditional school, so this is all new to me,” said Devlin’s mother, Mona Sheehan. “It’s not just traditional high schools out there anymore. There’s a lot more options to pick from.”

Like many families, the Sheehans talked to people from several schools. After being drawn in by several enthusiastic students at MC2STEM High School - the district’s main science, technology, engineering and math high school – they heard details from Principal Jeff McClellan.

McClellan answered questions about the school’s year-round schedule, its program, and how it had a waiting list last year, but eventually fit all students in. Hearing that Devlin had strong grades and the family had an interest in medicine, he also urged them to talk to the three schools at the John Hay campus, including the School of Science and Medicine.

He and other principals said they don’t view each other as competition, and want students to find the school that’s the right fit for them.

Dumaine Williams, a dean of the early college high school that Bard has in Newark, N.J., said he had regular questions all night, from excited families and skeptics of Bard’s program, which has advanced classes that give students college credit, usually an associates degree, at graduation.

But he reassured them that Bard has worked out the kinks at its two New York City early college high schools, its Newark school and another in New Orleans. Most parents at the Wolstein Center, he said, were excited to hear more.

“A lot of them came specifically because of the location,” said Williams. The school will go on the West Side, near W. 117th Street and Bellaire Avenue. “They were all saying they live on the West Side…that they live close by.”

Some families came to find ways to remove children from schools that are a bad fit. Mark Givens’ grandson wants to leave John Adams High School because he is frustrated with the bad behavior of other students and doesn’t feel like he’s learning enough.

“We want to get him out of there,” Givens said.

Others, like eighth grader Ariana Carter, wasn’t sure of her choices but was sure she wanted to go to college, with the hope of being a veterinary surgeon. The Washington Park program, which has animal science classes and some internships at the zoo, excited her.

“It’s a fine choice for her,” said Ariana’s mother, Kesha King. “She can express her own creativity. I support what she wants to do and will just be in the back, backing her up.”

The Sheehan family was just as impressed, saying as they left that they said they were confident they would find a good fit for Devlin, who now attends a Constellation charter school.

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